“What about her?” Zara asked, remembering that there was a woman on the floor.

  “She’ll be fine. I will have someone take her upstairs so that she can rest. I think you just took a little too much, but no bother.”

  Zara walked over to the woman and focused her hearing. She could hear a heartbeat. It was slow, but it was there.

  “You’re sure? I can take care of her.”

  “I’m sure,” Cassia said. “You have an appointment with the woman you love. Oh, and Zara?”

  “Yeah?”

  She turned back to Cassia.

  “I have all sorts of rewards planned for you, my dear.” Cassia stood and sauntered over to her. “I think even after I get my Iro back, I’d like to put you in a house near us, and I’d like to visit, if that’s all right with you. Maybe the four of us could get together, if you want. If not, I would love it if just you and me could arrange a little private time. I really do enjoy that tongue of yours. It’s a shame you never met someone in your human life who realized how good you were with it.”

  Zara swallowed, hating that she loved how Cassia complimented her all the time, telling her she was beautiful, special, and talented in bed. No one had ever been like this with her, and she needed this.

  “Maybe. I’ll have to see what Arwen thinks about that.”

  “Just remember, it’s a long life when you live forever, and one person, even my Iro, can get boring at times. You’ll want someone else eventually, and when that day comes…” Cassia ran a finger through Zara’s folds, causing her to gasp. “I’ll be here.” She put her finger in her mouth and moaned. “Have Gigi use her mouth. You’re hard, Zara.”

  Zara closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Cassia was gone. Knowing she didn’t have much time, Zara hurried up the stairs and got into the shower to rinse her skin. Then, the door opened, and Gigi walked in naked, surprising her because Zara hadn’t asked for her to join her.

  “I was told you needed me,” Gigi said proudly. “And I am to take care of you.”

  Watered-down blood dripped into the drain off Zara’s skin as the shower door opened, and Gigi proceeded to kneel in front of her. Zara didn’t have it in her to turn her down, so when Gigi took her with her mouth, Zara leaned her head back against the wall and let her take her. Cassia was right: Zara needed to be fully sated before she met with Arwen, and since full satiation wasn’t really possible as a vampire, she’d have to get as close as she could before she left.

  “Do it,” she commanded, loving the sound of it coming from her mouth.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Gigi answered and bit down into Zara’s inner thigh.

  “Oh, yes,” Zara let out and held Gigi closer, trying not to think about how much like Cassia she was becoming already.

  CHAPTER 25

  Cassia

  Cassia had stared at the human Gigi had brought up to one of the bedrooms for her. This girl wasn’t particularly useful – a business student, if Cassia remembered correctly – but Cassia had had the benefit of thousands of years on this planet, and she understood the importance of the long game. She bit her own wrist, mixed her blood with the girl’s still stuck to her neck from Zara’s bite, put it all in her mouth, and then snapped her neck. The girl had wanted to become a vampire, and she’d been told that she would have to wait, but Cassia didn’t need to wait if she didn’t want to. This girl, turned and taught, in three years or so, could get a good job with Cassia’s help and work her way up into a position that mattered, just not too high up in this case, since the girl was only in her twenties and wouldn’t age, so she’d always look too young and have to change jobs every decade or so. Still, Cassia could use her all the same. It was these small details that Iro hadn’t ever appreciated, and now, she was about to see why it was so important never to underestimate Cassia’s love for her.

  “I think I’m going to go out and get lunch. I’m tired of all the humans in the house, so I need something else today,” Miranda said. “I was going to take Amy with me, but want to come with us?”

  Cassia didn’t turn away from the girl on the bed and said, “No, I have other plans.”

  “Want me to take care of you before I go?” Miranda volunteered.

  “No, Zara took care of me quite well. Thank you.” She turned to Miranda then. “Is she still here?”

  “I think she just left.”

  “Good. Call a car for me before you go. I will be right out.”

  Miranda nodded and left the room.

  The girl Cassia had just turned would be asleep for the next several hours, so she could leave her there and no one would even notice. Cassia went to her own bedroom, where she was surprised to find Gigi and Alexia fucking on her bed.

  “Ladies, were your own rooms not to your liking?”

  Gigi was behind Alexia, fucking her with a strap-on, and Alexia seemed to be really enjoying herself.

  “We wanted to… fuck in here,” Gigi said with labored breathing. “It turns Alexia on… to fuck in your room. She thinks… you’re a queen. Right, baby?”

  Gigi continued to work hard inside her partner.

  “Yes! Yes!”

  “Queen Cassia? I’ll accept that.”

  “Want to… join us?” Gigi asked her. “She’s about to… come, but I can… stop and make her… wait.”

  “No!” Alexia protested.

  Cassia laughed and replied, “No, please continue. I just need to change. Don’t mind me.”

  “Fuck! Yes!”

  Alexia came then, and Cassia smirked as she walked into her closet to find something to wear without blood on it.

  “You want anything?” Gigi asked her a moment later as she walked up behind her with the dildo at attention between her legs that Cassia could feel.

  “Brazen,” she said.

  “You love it.”

  “I do, but I don’t have time.”

  Gigi then bit down gently on Cassia’s neck without her fangs and said, “You know I always want you.”

  “I’m well aware, but not right now,” she replied.

  “Where are you going?” Gigi asked.

  “I have an errand to run.”

  “Can I run your errand with you?”

  “It’s a secret errand. Can you be trusted?” Cassia teased.

  “You know I’m loyal to you and only you.”

  “What about Miranda?”

  “Miranda is a woman I fuck, and you turned us both at the same time, but I like fucking you best.”

  “Alexia, can you leave us, please?” Cassia asked.

  “Of course,” Alexia replied from the bedroom and departed at once.

  “You know I want you more than anyone else, and yet, you have been putting me behind Zara. Why? Have I disappointed you?” Gigi asked.

  “I’ll let you come with me, and you’ll get a sneak peek at what I’m planning.” She turned around and added, “Zara doesn’t even know.”

  Gigi growled at that, and Cassia smirked at her, loving how she could inspire such devotion and loyalty in the women she turned.

  “Let me be your number one, Cassia,” Gigi said as Cassia turned around and met Gigi’s eyes. “When I fuck you hard later, I want you to really feel it. I want you to know that it’s me, not Iro. It’s me. I want you. I will do anything to be at your side. God, I’ll give anything to be the one you trust most, Cassia. I want to be that person for you. It’s not Zara. She’s not only too new; she still has a life outside of you. I don’t. I only have you. I only want you and this life.”

  Cassia squinted at her and said, “Come with me today. I could use your help with something. I was going to do it all myself, but it’ll work better with you there.”

  “Anything,” Gigi said. “Anything you want is yours.”

  “Maybe later, I’ll have you how I want, darling: naked and on my bed. Right now, we have business to attend to, but I promise you, it’ll still be pleasurable.” Cassia held out her wrist. “Would you like some before we go?”

  Gigi didn’t answer. She took a bite and sucked on Cassia’s wrist until she finally let go and took a deep breath.

  “Better?”

  “Yes,” Gigi replied.

  “Then, let’s go.”

  ◆◆◆

  The plan had been a simple one. All Zara had to do was get Arwen away from Iro. The coffee shop had been Zara’s idea, but it hadn’t mattered to Cassia. She could accomplish her goal no matter where the meeting would have been. When she arrived, she and Gigi stayed in the car for several minutes, watching Zara talk to Arwen, likely telling her the lie about the cancer results being negative. Arwen looked appropriately empathetic and even sad there for a minute before they had probably transitioned topics, and Zara was laughing then.

  “She looks happy,” Gigi noted.

  “Yes, she does. Well, she does love her, so I suppose that makes sense.”

  “Is that why we’re doing this? For Zara to have the human she loves?”

  “No, but it could be a nice side effect if Zara continues to play her part.” Cassia took Gigi’s hand that had wandered up her thigh and put it back in Gigi’s lap. “Darling, not right now. We need to pay attention.”

  “We’ve done this in the car before when we were supposed to be paying attention to something,” Gigi replied.

  “This is important.”

  “More important than the time you turned that politician so that you could get him to vote how you wanted?”

  “Yes,” she answered quickly.

  “Okay,” Gigi replied.

  “I promise, sweetheart, you’ll have your fun. In a few minutes, most likely. Then, we can have more fun later.”

  “I don’t want Miranda tonight, Cassia. I want you; only you tonight.”

  “You understand that I’m doing this right now to help Iro realize that I’m the only one for her, right?”

  “I know my place,” Gigi said.

  “But you love me, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Gigi replied.

  “And you know I love her?”

  “Yes.”

  “That doesn’t bother you?”

  “No.”

  “What do you want out of this, Gigi? You’ve never been like this before.”

  “You’ve been turning people more and more recently. I figured now was my time.”

  “To stake your claim as…”

  “As whatever you’ll let me be, yes.”

  “I’d love for you to be my right hand,” Cassia said.

  “Not Zara?”

  “I do like her. At first, she was simply sex and someone to turn, but I’ve enjoyed her more and more. She’s discovering who she was always meant to be, and I find that alluring; a woman taking what she really wants as she learns that she’s wanted it all along. Zara serves a purpose.”

  “I don’t?”

  “You do, but it’s a broader purpose. I need Zara to help me with this specifically. She has a connection to Arwen, and since Iro is infatuated with Zara’s best friend, I can use that to my advantage without risking Iro’s anger at the same time. I also love Zara’s mouth. What that woman can do with her tongue… I don’t even think Zara knows how good she is in bed.”

  “Yes, I know. She’s very good, isn’t she?”

  “Does it bother you that I’d want her, too? That I enjoy her so thoroughly? Or that I enjoy all of you? You, Miranda, Alexia, Sarah, the new ones.”

  “Not as long as it’s me most often.”

  Cassia lifted her eyebrow and asked, “What about my Iro?”

  “I know she’s the one you love. I can handle that. I’ve got needs that others can take care of for me. But after Iro, I want to be next. I want to come before Zara.”

  “I see,” Cassia replied. “Well, I think you are next.” She nodded to the café across the street. “You’re up, Gigi. She’s going to the bathroom. I’ll distract Zara. You get Arwen. I’ll get another car and meet you at home. We don’t have much time, so now, dear.” She held Gigi’s chin in her hand. “You take her, but you do not hurt her. I want her completely unharmed. If you need to silence her, you do so without injury, Gigi. I mean it.”

  When Gigi nodded in understanding, Cassia leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the lips, needing to leave her wanting more.

  “Good girl,” she added, causing Gigi to growl. “Whatever you want later, if you do this right,” she promised.

  Gigi opened the car door for Cassia and waited for her to walk ahead so that Zara wouldn’t be aware of her presence. Cassia walked in and sat down across from Zara in Arwen’s vacated chair.

  “Cassia?”

  “Hello, sweetheart.”

  “What are you doing here? Arwen just went to the bathroom.”

  Zara looked around frantically as if Arwen were nearby and would see Cassia in her chair.

  “You told me where you’d be, and I missed you,” Cassia said with a puppy-dog smile. “How was Gigi in the shower? Delicious, right?”

  “She’ll be right back. You don’t want her to see you.”

  “She can see me without knowing who I am. You certainly haven’t told her about me, have you?”

  “What? No,” Zara replied.

  “Excellent. You’re doing very well, Zara.”

  “Very well at what?”

  “This part of the plan.”

  “What plan?”

  “Talking to Arwen. How did she take the news?”

  “She was worried about the cancer thing, but I told her I’m fine.”

  “Good,” Cassia said with a nod. “Now, this is the part of the plan you’re not going to like, but things are taking longer than I thought they would, and I am getting impatient. The longer Iro and Arwen are together, the worse it is for both of us. You understand?”

  “Yes. But what do you mean that I won’t like it?”

  “Simply that I need to take matters into my own hands now. I’m not good with slow, as you know. I’m an impatient person for someone who has lived forever.” Cassia shrugged a shoulder. “I had another spy. Well, I have several. One of them happened to peer into a window, and, well, they saw a side to Arwen that, I guess, you’ve never seen.”

  “What?”

  “She was naked, and she was having sex with the love of my life, which means they’ve progressed to the part where Iro is about to tell her that she loves her. Trust me, I know my wife. After hundreds of years together, no one knows Iro better, and no one ever will. Anyway, I needed to take more drastic measures, but I have you in mind, dear Zara. Don’t worry about that. She’ll be yours as my gift to you.”

  Zara’s eyes showed recognition.

  “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her.”

  “I’m not. I’m going to turn her.”

  “What? No, that’s not what we talked about,” Zara said.

  “Sweetheart, it’s time. You’ll get to be with her forever. Much better this way. You will have eternity together, and she will never get old. You won’t, either. You can have any of my homes, or, like I told you before, I’ll happily buy you a new one. You will keep Arwen away from Iro, of course. I don’t need them spending any time together. If you’d like some time with me since I’m your creator and you’ll crave me from time to time, we can figure that out, but this really is for the best. I am holding up my end of the bargain when I really don’t have to, you understand? I could just kill Arwen and be done with this whole thing, but I’m doing this for you. Now, Gigi already has Arwen in that car over there.” Cassia pointed as the car sped off. “And I’ve ordered a car to take us home as well. You can watch if you want. Or not. It’s up to you. I’d understand if you want to lie next to her until she wakes up. I watched over Iro as she slept, after all.”

  “You can’t turn her, Cassia.”

  “I can.” Cassia leaned forward. “And I will. Now, you’ll get on board with this new plan, and I will do what I need to do in order to get the love of my life back and make the love of yours more suited to your new lifestyle. What was your plan, Zara? Never tell her that you’re a vampire now, and in ten years, when you’re not even a little bit older, you just leave when she starts asking questions?”

  “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

  “That’s right, you haven’t. You’re playing checkers with a human brain barely evolved into a vampire one. I’m playing chess, and I’m ten moves ahead of everyone.” The car pulled up, and she tilted her head. “Now, let’s get in and go home.”

  Zara looked around the café and the street again.

  “You’re not thinking about doing something very stupid, are you, Zara? Disappointing me? I implore you, do not disappoint me. I like you, Zara. I’ve given you so much and have offered you more than I have offered anyone who has come before you.”

  “Can I get you two anything else?” a waitress asked, arriving at the small outdoor table.

  “No,” Cassia said abruptly, looking up at her and thinking about how pretty the woman was. “Just the check, please, and quickly. We have someplace to be.”

  When she looked across the table at Zara, planning to ask her if she’d like to turn this woman or, at least, enjoy her later as a way to make it up to her for what she was about to do to Arwen, Zara was no longer there. She was already in her car, and it was pulling out into traffic.

  “Never mind,” she stated and handed the woman cash.

  Then, she stood up and sighed. She was exhausted with this whole mess, but she supposed that Zara had just made it easier for her. She climbed into her car and had the driver take her home, needing to be quick. It was likely Zara was on her way to the house, too, but her driver knew all the shortcuts, and she needed to beat Zara there, kill her, and move on to the next part of her plan. She’d been so kind to Zara, but if she was going to betray her, there was no point in keeping the woman around. When she arrived at her house, though, Zara’s car wasn’t there.

  “Iro,” she said, realizing that Zara had probably headed there instead. “Well, slight change of plans, but no matter.”

  “She’s in your room,” Gigi told her when Cassia entered the house.

  “Uninjured?”

  “Yes. She screamed the whole way here, but she’s quiet now.”